In a Moment of Observance, I learned lesson of a lifetime

Last Sunday, I woke up with an intense headache. It probably had to do something with me mindlessly scrolling the internet the night before. Questions about my life and career kept me awake.

As soon as I woke up, I wanted to go back to sleep. However, I didn’t want the headache to ruin my day so I decided to get up, have my chai and did activities hoping that the headache goes away.

I tried sitting quietly trying to answer the last night’s questions. But I found that the questions kept growing: Am I on the right track in my career growth? Will I be able to achieve what I set myself to achieve? Will I be able to sustain my past laurels? What if all my hard work is not rewarded? I realized my self talk is making me more nervous than calm. For a while I distracted myself with reading a book, but the voice in my head kept getting louder.

I decided to get out of my head and take a day out. I went into the nature and found myself walking on the beach of Daman. As a distraction, I started observing the people on the beach who were busy enjoying their Sunday. I saw children building sand castles near the beach. Parents keeping eye on their children in the water while enjoying the picnic. Balloon sellers persuading little children and their parents to get balloons and some savoury snacks. Teenagers posing for pictures to share on their social media apps. Some youth entering the water and enjoying its ride – the high and the low tides.

While observing the things around me, I just didn’t realise when I stepped into the water myself and felt the cold water wrap around my feet drowning them deep into the sand beneath. At first, I tried to resist the water and jumped backwards so as to avoid feeling the discomfort of the cold water. The plan was to only walk across the seashore and not indulge in the movements of the sea water. But when the the second wave of water quickly grabbed hold of my feet, I decided to surrender. Surrender to the cold water. Surrender to the moment and observed without distraction the water climbing up my feet, and later towards my knees as I was pulled into the water. I observed with intent all the feelings I felt and I felt blissful. Not a care in the world. There was no future making me anxious or the past haunting me. I was present. I was without worry. I saw the sky meeting the water at a far away distance with great focus and just like that the headache magically disappeared.

While observing the ordinary moments of life, I realised I was living in the present moment. While observing the high and low tide of water, I realised life is all about the high and low moments. While observing, I realised that while I was trying to work out the answer to my future questions, I was busy living in the future sacrificing the joy that the present moment had to offer. While observing, I realised that the important thing is to not have the answer right now to my future worries but trust to surrender and believe that everything will work out.

As I was returning home back, I felt serene. I felt peaceful. The Priya who left her home in the morning was anxious and the one who came home back was a calm Priya. She was trusting of and surrendering to the future and living blissfully in the present. Stepping out into the nature was a great decision and it reminded me of a beautiful quote I read once: Nature never rushes yet everything is accomplished.

I could only realized this when I stepped out of my head and stepped into the nature and observed. I realized when I observed the ordinary moments of life, the nature rewarded me with lesson of a lifetime 😊